Left-leaning group goes after James Comer with attack ad in his hometown

A mobile billboard was sent Monday to U.S. Rep. James Comer's hometown criticizing his business dealings and calling him "unfit," to lead the Joe Biden impeachment inquiry following a report last week from The Associated Press.

The billboard, which plays an about one-minute YouTube video, was created by the Congressional Integrity Project, a left-leaning group. It believes “Comer must answer for his blatant hypocrisy and come clean to the American public and the people he represents about his shady financial dealings," according to Kyle Herrig, the project's executive director.

The mobile billboard was sent to in Tompkinsville, a Western Kentucky city where Comer was raised and owns land, after The Associated Press reported last week that the congressman is involved in a shell company co-owned by a political donor.

Comer, head of the House Oversight Committee, has attacked members of the president's family over their use of shell companies, which Republicans say were used to shield payments from foreign entities and gain wealth by trading on the family name.

The report says Comer's shell company "functions in a similarly opaque way as the companies used by the Bidens." Thee company, called Farm Team Properties, masks "his stake in the land that he co-owns with the donor from being revealed on his financial disclosure forms," it says.

"How can we trust Comer to run investigations when he has failed to be honest about his own money-making schemes?" Herrig asked in a statement about the new billboard. "The people of Kentucky deserve to know the truth. The only person Congress should be investigating is James Comer himself.”

Comer declined to comment to The Associated Press through a spokesman and has denied wrongdoing.

The AP said Farm Team Properties is co-owned by Darren Cleary, a political donor and construction contractor in Monroe County. But, it noted, Comer went on Fox News on Thursday and said Cleary wasn't a donor when the company was formed.

The company was created in 2017 to hold Comer's stake in six acres purchased two years earlier in conjunction with Cleary, the report says. Cleary and his family have donated to Comer’s political campaigns since at least 2010 and have given roughly $70,000, the AP found.

Cleary did not respond to an AP interview request last week.

This is not the first time Comer's financial dealings have been scrutinized as he helps lead the investigation into the president's family.

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Last month he was questioned during a hearing by U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz about a reported $200,000 payment the Kentucky Republican made to his brother as part of a land swap. Comer responded by calling Moskowitz, a Florida Democrat, a "smurf" and liar, and he used an obscenity to describe the story about that deal. Comer added that his brother never borrowed one penny from him.

Comer's response led to an ethics complaint against him filed by the Congressional Integrity Project.

Nick Hollkamp contributed to this report. Contact reporter Krista Johnson at kjohnson3@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: James Comer shell company: Group launches attack ad in Kentucky city